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Firefox 37 Released
Today Mozilla began rolling out Firefox version 37.0 to release channel users. This update mostly focuses on behind-the-scenes changes. Security improvements include opportunistic encryption where servers support it and improved protection against site impersonation. They also disabled insecure TLS version fallback and added a security panel within the developer tools. One of the things end users will see is the Heartbeat feedback collection system. It will pop up a small rating widget to a random selection of users every day. After a user rates Firefox, an "engagement" page may open in the background, with links to social media pages and a donation page. Here are the release notes and full changelist.
Why is it so hard to install on your server stuff like mozilla sync, hello and link share ? Mozilla, you have take back the web now you should help people to take back the services.
There's still no working support for the Media Source Extensions, and as a result it has incomplete support for YouTube's HTML5 player. Lame.
Hi,
anybody being annoyed to be asked over and over and over again?
My stance is, if "fucking" developers can't feel the vibe of the users or lack common sense, they should not develop software for common people. ..Rate me - shape me - anyway you want it - as long as I'm alive..
If Picasso would have also asked the people if they liked his early works, he would have commited suicide and not created something great.
Disabling Heartbeat
We understand that any interruption of your time on the internet can be annoying.
open about:config
set browser.selfsupport.url to ""
enjoy the rest of your day!
from the related link in tfs...
in about:config
set browser.selfsupport.url to ""
it does suck, however, that things like this (and the dreadful new search box, the new tab bullshit, etc) are forced on people who then have to figure out how to get rid of the shit or revert to the 'old way', which often means digging into about:config or adding a new third-party extension because they take so much control out of the options UI
i miss the days when mozilla's goal for firefox was a lean, mean, extendable, browsing machine.
> they take so much control out of the options UI
This is spreading everywhere like a disease, all for the sake that someone can sit at a desk and call themselves a "designer" and make witty descriptions of themselves on Twitter. I truly cannot wait for the tech bubble to burst
Firefox has had a "Submit Feedback" menu option for some time now.
We can even view the results: https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/
As I write this, almost 10,000 people have responded within the past week. 88% of the responses are "Sad" ones! Only 12% are "Happy"!
I don't know why they need another system to tell them exactly what those stats say very clearly: Firefox users are just not happy with the product!
Even the most despised national leaders never get a popularity ranking that goddamn bad, even during the worst scandals and the greatest upheaval.
Something is really, really wrong with Firefox in order for it to be so consistently rated so badly by so many users. This isn't just about the usual unhappy people expressing their displeasure. This is about almost everyone being unhappy with Firefox!
Either: Don't ask me again.
Or: A link to download another browser that won't beg for money.
As a Firefox user, I'm very concerned when I see its market share dropping month after month.
These stats from US gov't websites show Firefox's market share at 11%.
Other global stats paint a very similar picture.
Globally, I suspect that Firefox's share of the market is only about 10%. That's pretty abysmal, especially for a browser that was so popular once. It used to hold well over 30% of the market at one time.
Chrome for Android alone now has a greater share of the market than Firefox on all platforms does. Even IE 11, by itself, has about as many users as Firefox does in total.
Why aren't trends like these scaring the living hell out of Mozilla, as an organization?
Because the Firefox devs think their browser should pander to the tablet-interface loving users, with advanced features hidden and the GUI dumbed down - while a large part of their user base specifically wants an "advanced" browser with lots of addons which does NOT look like Chrome. So lots of users are leaving, and the Firefox devs in their ivory tower wonder why nobody likes their "vision" of the perfect browser and why the users do not "get" that the devs KNOW what's best.
Why aren't trends like these scaring the living hell out of Mozilla, as an organization?
I think they probably do. At least, that's the reason I've always felt explained the Chromification of Firefox. That dumbing-down and relative takeover of the project direction by "UX designers" and "social media engineers" was allowed because the powers at the top felt that it was the only way they could try and recover some of the userbase lost to Chrome.
What they don't realize is that Firefox was created to "take back the web" from the stagnating Internet Explorer 6. It was never about replacing IE as some overbearing dominant beast.
And Firefox succeeded! Development on IE was revitalized by Microsoft, Google released Chrome, and work was renewed on web standards (a whole 'nuther can of worms there, but a separate topic). How did Firefox accomplish this? By being fast, lean, developer-friendly, power-user friendly, absurdly extensible, and with simple and clear design goals.
If Mozilla had simply stuck to these principles, Firefox user share would still have gone down -- it was a certainty due to the additional options for reasonable browsers, mobile usage, Google bundling Chrome with everything they can get their hands on, etc. However, I think it would have gone down less, and maybe even a lot less if they'd remained the browser they were rather than turning into the little puppy following Chrome around.
People who left Firefox for Chrome because they liked Chrome's design better would still have left. But with ChromiFox, people who don't like Chrome are leaving too, because if you're stuck with either Chrome or Chrome Light, you may as well go for the real deal. Sure, there are projects like Ice Weasel and LucidFox which attempt to bring some of that back, but they're relatively niche and don't have the visibility or word-of-mouth needed to take off.
In short: Mozilla abandoned their primary design goals and principles, the same ones that made Firefox great, and the result is user loss, stagnation and, probably, eventual obscurity. As someone who used Firebird, this make me very sad.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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That's why their market share is going up, because they're giving the little people what they want. Oh, what's that, their market share is going down? Maybe the little people think the new interface is crap too?